Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah

It is narrated from Hazrat Huzail bin Shurahbeel that he said: Hazrat Muawiyah delivered a sermon before the people and said, "O people! Indeed, you have come and you have pledged allegiance to me willingly, and if you had pledged allegiance to an Abyssinian slave with cut ears, I would have come and pledged allegiance to him with you." When he descended from the pulpit, Hazrat Amr bin Aas said to him, "Do you know what you have done today? You have said that they pledged allegiance to you willingly. So if they pledge allegiance to that Abyssinian slave, you will have to come and pledge allegiance to him." He became regretful and returned towards the pulpit and said, "O people, is there anyone more deserving of this matter (caliphate) than me? Is there anyone more deserving of it than me?" The narrator said that Hazrat Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) was present there. The narrator said that Hazrat Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) said, "I intended to say: The one more deserving of this matter than you is the one who struck you and your father for the sake of Islam. Then I feared that my words would cause discord, and I remembered the Paradise that Allah has prepared, so refraining from what I wanted to say became easy for me."